Fire Krueger

The East is suspect defensively. Few if any of the clubs there would advance in WC playoffs. Any of the Hawks, Kings, Preds, Nucks, Yotes, Sharks, would've been good enough to prevail against the EC finalist Devils last year. Who are curiously such a normal team that they couldn't make the playoffs in the same weak knee EC this year. Theres not much cream in the east, a lot of spoiled milk.

Jesus H just ****ing fire the whole staff hire Ruff and let him pick his ******* staff. This organization needs to stop with this I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine mentality. Bucky and Smith have done absolutely nothing since being here. I don't give a **** that you all used to shower together get over it.

We've already lined their pockets an insane amount I'm sure of it, it's time to move one. Let Ruff or Babcock come in and bring their staff along, give Buchberger a different job if you have to keep him employed for whatever reason(s).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dorian2

Ease up Reimer. It was a simple question from someone who does not follow the Sabres at all. All I have to go on are his stats.

Ruff IMO is a good coach, the problem with the Sabres the last 3-4 years have been similar to the Oilers, they have too many mini mites out there. Had the Sabres not had some horrible injury luck in '05-06 they would've been the team beating us for the cup IMO.

Now can someone/anyone tell me why Krueger should be retained as head coach? Same amount of wins, less GF, more GA, bigger negative goal differential.

Other side of the perspective

-They added 2 rookies as "upgrades" to the 2nd worse team in the league
-All the apathetic vets predictably got worse, since why the hell would they improve at age 30+ if they couldn't hack it the last 2 years?
-The supposed top pairing defenseman whose health the season rested it's hope's on, outright crashed and burned(Whitney)
-No training camp
-Few practices

And you are saying they are only slightly worse compared to the same time frame from last year?

Fire Kreuger? We should start campaigning for a bloody Jack Adams for the poor guy

-They added 2 rookies as "upgrades" to the 2nd worse team in the league
-All the apathetic vets predictably got worse, since why the hell would they improve at age 30+ if they couldn't hack it the last 2 years?
-The supposed top pairing defenseman whose health the season rested it's hope's on, outright crashed and burned(Whitney)
-No training camp
-Few practices

And you are saying they are only slightly worse compared to the same time frame from last year?

Fire Kreuger? We should start campaigning for a bloody Jack Adams for the poor guy

Added 2 rookies who just so happen to be two of the top scoring rookies in the NHL, yet our GF is lower than last season. We added Fistric as well, didn't burn out Khabibulin by overplaying him, haven't had any major man games lost to key players unless you consider Horcoff such a player. You say no training camp, I say that he was able to keep in contact with most of our core in OKC in the offseason. There was also a familiarity with the players since he was associate coach here, sorry I'm not buying it.

Added 2 rookies who just so happen to be two of the top scoring rookies in the NHL, yet our GF is lower than last season. We added Fistric as well, didn't burn out Khabibulin by overplaying him, haven't had any major man games lost to key players unless you consider Horcoff such a player. You say no training camp, I say that he was able to keep in contact with most of our core in OKC in the offseason. There was also a familiarity with the players since he was associate coach here, sorry I'm not buying it.

Both rookies have struggled defensively this year, and Shultz actually has a worse +/- in half a season than any defenseman had in a full schedule last year(not that I put much stock in +/-). Yakupov has started to excel with his carefully managed icetime, but Shultz looks like he's suffering a crisis of confidence after being so heavily relied upon so soon.

RNH(Shoulder) and Eberle(broken hand) were injured most of the year, and suffered significant reductions in production nullifying any bonuses either of the rookie players provided(and even the Hall and Gagner's bumps). That isn't even including the players everyone hates(Hemsky and his foot, Horcoff, Belanger, Jones), or the depth(Lander) that forced us to watch Smyth at center ice because Tambo was allergic to giving up a 7th rounder for a center.

Sutton/Fistric was a lateral move at best, 6/7 defenseman with some toughness who doesn't get into the roster anymore than Sutton did, and isn't an impact player when he's in there either.

Familiarity and keeping touch with players during a lockout, along with a few players playing together in the AHL(where they actually struggled at times), doesn't mean they can learn and play a new system on the fly at the NHL level - especially not a team that has shown the last 2 years that they are prone to abandoning systems play at the first sign of adversity(a theme with this year's team as well).

It's just status quo around here, roster is the same mess it was last year. Whatever gains made by the young players was lost to injuries, declining vets, an identically unbalanced roster, and the petrified inactivity of an idiotic management group, yet the stats you posted show only a slight decline. You don't buy it's not the coach, I don't buy that it really has much of anything to do with the coach. It's not even really a defense of Kreuger, this team isn't good enough to win no matter who is coaching.

Who did they get exposed by last year? And the Kings were on fire during the Playoffs. But this year each conference has a few great teams. Yeah the Southeast sucks, sorta like the Northwest.

The penguins got torched by the flyers who then lost easily to the devils. The bruins should not have lost to the caps but did anyway. The last few years the west has eaten up the east and even we managed to defeat most of their playoff teams last year

I'm sick of his motivational garbage. Whatever message he is trying to articulate is clearly hitting a wall at this point, and whatever coaching strategy is not working. We should never have let Renney go, but that was an act of a desperate man trying to save his own ass. A lesson well learned in this town, from the top down.

Now that we've gone through 4 coaches in 4 years we are left with the worst of the lot. Sadly, given this organizations nepotism, if we turf Kruger we will end up with Bucki. If we end up with Bucki, it will prove MacT is a monkey on a leash, and isn't afforded the opportunity to find his own coach.

PHX and LA were ordinary teams too. STL and NSH which were in the Conference semis weren't exactly great teams either.

In what way was LA ordinary? They hit the playoffs as one of the better teams in the league which I called at the time. After game 2 of the playoffs I called the Kings to go all the way. That was a solid team built for playoff hockey who dominated the opposition through 4 rounds with nobody coming close to stopping them.

Phoenix, solid team concept, good goaltending, but better scoring depth on the counter than given credit for. They were one of the better scoring clubs in the playoffs, a fact people tended to ignore.

Everybody knows preds were two of the best D on the planet with one of the best goalies in net. On a club playing a solid team game.

Blues would rule in the East this season. Textbook example of teams with a focus on allround play being better than their EC brethren.

In terms of players and lineups it might be closer between conferences than it is. But in terms of coaching and team play its WC hands down.

Who did they get exposed by last year? And the Kings were on fire during the Playoffs. But this year each conference has a few great teams. Yeah the Southeast sucks, sorta like the Northwest.

Not a strong statement either. The Northeast is 14pts better than the SE in a shortened season featuring clustered grouping of teams tight around the pts mean. Other than a couple outliers not much to seperate teams in pts overall. But the SE is significantly worse than any other Division. We also have the Jets, who haven't beat a playoff bound team since March 19 feasting and almost making the playoffs due to beating up on 3 pathetic divisional rivals.

Theres about 3 solid teams in the East Pitts, Boston, Wash. Of those the Capitals knew enough about how easy it was going to be by basically taking the first third of the season off. All they really ever had to do was be better than the Jets and knew it. This being a team thats really only played 30 games and are well rested. Because its not necessary to extend yourself making the playoffs in the East.

Nobody can convince me that Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, NYI, NYR are solid teams or a threat to do anything in either division.

All of Anaheim, Chicago, Vancouver, LA, SJ are very solid teams in the West and with other playoff range teams that are just better clubs than in the East.

You serious about this? The series was very nearly a sweep and with the Devils having very little answer to the kings. The Devils you remember were demoralized and not sure what to do after going down 3-0 in the series.

Give them some credit for gutting out a game 4 win in LA in a game that could have gone either way.

Back in NJ for game 5 the Kings dominated and somehow lost.

Back in LA the Kings finished the deal and did what they should have done in game 4 and hammered the lifeless Devils 6-1. The Devils were never even remotely in game 6. Stick a fork in, done like dinner.

The only thing that even made that series appear close is the Kings having expended more energy getting to the final in the tougher WC. For instance it being hard to even make the playoffs in the WC.

As for goals scored the Devils last season played the Florida Panthers, Philly Flyers, and NYR. Not exactly world beaters at keeping the puck out of the net. The Panthers and Flyers particularly being abysmal at the same. Take a look at who the Yotes had to play and without Raffi Torres..

- development of Yak & PRV
- Tambo doesn't see a need to replace Horcoff after his injury
- the d core is terrible
- PP & PK solid, although I can't believe they don't set up Hall & Yakupov for the one-timer
- roster is not well designed to be competitive in the West.

- development of Yak & PRV
- Tambo doesn't see a need to replace Horcoff after his injury
- the d core is terrible
- PP & PK solid, although I can't believe they don't set up Hall & Yakupov for the one-timer
- roster is not well designed to be competitive in the West.

Not a strong statement either. The Northeast is 14pts better than the SE in a shortened season featuring clustered grouping of teams tight around the pts mean. Other than a couple outliers not much to seperate teams in pts overall. But the SE is significantly worse than any other Division. We also have the Jets, who haven't beat a playoff bound team since March 19 feasting and almost making the playoffs due to beating up on 3 pathetic divisional rivals.

Theres about 3 solid teams in the East Pitts, Boston, Wash. Of those the Capitals knew enough about how easy it was going to be by basically taking the first third of the season off. All they really ever had to do was be better than the Jets and knew it. This being a team thats really only played 30 games and are well rested. Because its not necessary to extend yourself making the playoffs in the East.

Nobody can convince me that Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, NYI, NYR are solid teams or a threat to do anything in either division.

All of Anaheim, Chicago, Vancouver, LA, SJ are very solid teams in the West and with other playoff range teams that are just better clubs than in the East.

Do you think that the Oilers would be in the playoffs if they were in the East? I don't think so, maybe a bit higher. I wish we could see if they could be the Jets. The Canucks have zero depth and the Sharks are underachieving again this year. The Caps are playing like they should be and the Rangers are reminding me of the Kings last year. Can see them doing allot of damage if they can avoid the Pens and Crosby in the first round.

I also said that the Southeast was similar to the Northwest division. Three in each division are bottom feeders.

Kreuger is not the problem, folks. We've gone through coaches here like Rita MacNeil wolfs down sandwiches (too soon?). Seriously, when do the players have to take the responsibility they deserve? I'm not saying that the coaching has been excellent, but 46 games are not enough time to make that decision. You guys would be lousy investors, flipping stocks at the first sign of trouble. I think Ralph needs at least a full season, and if he doesn't have the complementary players he needs to succeed, that's not his fault.